POVs
Verified Circulation: One Year Later
A Point of View By Teresa Perry, Senior Vice President, Publisher Relations and Report Processing Services, Audit Bureau of Circulations, Schaumburg, Ill.
Nearly a year has passed since consumer magazines first reported verified circulation on ABC statements. During this time the verified category has received a considerable amount of attention in the press, at industry events and within the ABC member forum. To help you understand the evolution and use of verified circulation over the past year, I have gathered some statistics from both the June and December 2006 ABC Publisher’s Statements. I’d also like to update you on some of the changes that the ABC board of directors recently made to the verified category.
But before I get to those statistics, let’s define verified circulation. Verified circulation refers to subscription copies designated by publishers for readership in public places or intended for individual use by recipients who are likely to have a strong affinity for the content of the magazine. Verified circulation is reported in Paragraph 1 of ABC statements. Additional information, including distribution locations and list sources, are reported in Paragraphs 6A and 6B. You can learn more about verified circulation by reading the primer I wrote last year or visiting ABC’s Web site.
Verified Circulation Usage Statistics
Industry discussion often focuses on the appropriate levels of verified circulation and the role it should play in publishers’ circulation strategies. This is really a matter best discussed between individual media buyers and sellers; however, I can share with you some overall statistics on the industry’s use of verified.
June 2006 Statistics
- 229 publications reported verified circulation.
- 201 publications reported public place verified circulation and 97 reported individual use verified circulation.
- 69 publications reported both public place and individual use copies.
- The total reported verified circulation was approximately 13,411,000 copies or 3.5 percent of the total paid and verified circulation.
- Of those reporting verified, it accounted for an average of six percent of their total paid and verified circulation.
December 2006 Statistics
- 243 publications reported verified circulation.
- 193 publications reported public place verified circulation and 131 reporting individual use verified circulation.
- 81 reported both public place and individual use circulation.
- The total verified circulation was approximately 14,799,000 copies or 3.9 percent of the total paid and verified circulation.
- Of those reporting verified, it accounted for an average of seven percent of their total paid and verified circulation.
Recent Changes to Verified Circulation
As a forum for media buyers and sellers, ABC has listened to many industry leaders share their opinions on the use and purpose of verified circulation and its status in the marketplace. Many of these leaders are members of ABC’s Magazine Directors’ Advisory Committee (MDAC) and Magazine Buyer’s Advisory Committee (MBAC) as well as the board of directors. As the verified circulation category matures, ABC’s committees and boards will continue to monitor its progress.
At its July 2007 meeting, the board made several modifications to the verified circulation category. These changes are effective with issues dated Jan. 1, 2008:
Elimination of Public-Place Sponsored Sales
The board voted to eliminate public-place sponsored sales as a paid
circulation category and moved it to the verified circulation category.
All rules that apply to verified public place circulation now apply to
public-place sponsored sales circulation. The board also voted to allow
publishers to report the amount paid by a sponsor for public place copies.
Use of Back Copies in Verified Circulation
The board also modified the verified rules surrounding back copies.
Effective with Jan. 1, 2008, issues, back copies served to public places
will no longer be eligible to be claimed as verified on ABC statements.
Since the board eliminated the public-place sponsored-sales category, this
also applies to back copies in that category of circulation. Back copies
served as individual use will not qualify on ABC statements unless the
recipient directly requested the publication.
Full-Term Disclosure Reporting
Finally, the board voted to require that any copies served and claimed as
verified (both public place and individual use) as part of a subscription
term must be reported accordingly. A publisher that elects to report to
any copies served as verified must report all of the copies served as
verified as part of that subscription term. The minimum service term for
verified subscriptions remains is two consecutive issues.
For More Information
As always, if you have any questions about verified circulation please do not hesitate to contact ABC.
If you are a publisher member of ABC, please contact your Publisher Relations manager.
If you are an advertiser or an advertising agency, please contact manager, marketing and sales, at (212) 867-8992 ext. 7 or assistant manager, marketing and sales, at (847) 879-88240.
About ABC
With more than 4,000 members in North America, ABC is a forum of the world’s leading magazine and newspaper publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies. The organization provides credible, verified information essential to the media buying and selling process. ABC maintains the world’s foremost electronic database of audited-circulation information and an array of verified readership, subscriber demographics and online activity data. To learn more, visit www.accessabc.com.
Teresa Perry
acts as senior
vice president,
publisher
member audit
and report
processing
services and
oversees two
critical
publisherfacing
divisions at ABC: Publisher Relations
and Technical Review and Report
Processing (TRRP).
Perry joined ABC as a field auditor in
1989 and was promoted to director, Field
Auditing, Periodicals in 1998. In 2000, she
was promoted to vice president, Field
Auditing, Periodicals and in 2004, she was
promoted to her current position.
Currently, Perry serves as the ABC staff
liaison to the Magazine Directors’ Advisory
Committee (MDAC) and the Magazine
Publisher’s Liaison Committee (MPL).